New Images of Sun Reveal Finest Detail Ever — Plus Strange Pattern

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New Images of Sun Reveal Finest Detail Ever — Plus Strange Pattern (Maria)

The author writes, “Scientists have captured images of the sun’s surface in the finest detail yet, revealing a strange and dynamic facade. Researchers were able to peek at its scorching surface while testing the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on Maui, Hawaii. When they viewed the results, they realized they’d photographed the sun at a higher resolution than ever before — and captured strange feathery patterns rippling across its surface.”

Secret ICE Agent Tried to ‘Entice’ Minneapolis Activists Into Confrontational Tactics (Sean)

From The Intercept: “Organizers in Minneapolis long suspected they were being surveilled by the federal government during the height of the winter protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was not until a court filing on Thursday, however, that the youth-led Sunrise Movement and other groups learned the depths of infiltration. The Sunrise Movement has long preached nonviolence even as it pursues aggressive tactics, such as making a racket outside of the hotels where ICE agents sleep. But the group’s public commitment to peaceful protest did not spare it from a months-long, aggressive campaign of government snooping that included ICE agents attending its meetings and protests undercover, subpoenas of its financial records, and at least one apparent attempt to entice an organizer into backing more confrontational tactics.”

An Open Letter to Scott Bessent: Why You’re Wrong and I’m Right (Gerry)

From Robert Reich: “Lower-income workers continue to struggle with stagnant wages and inflation, while high-income workers are riding high on the wealth effects of the stock market. Real wages may be growing slightly more for low income than high income, but the booming stock market is mostly benefiting the high income. Widening inequalities are partly due to policies you and your boss in the Oval Office have been pursuing — especially your tariffs and war in Iran, both of which have been pushing prices upward and imposing a far greater burden on lower-income than high-income Americans. July’s jobs report showed wage growth falling sharply, with average hourly earnings increasing at the slowest pace in five years — 3.2% year-over-year. Inflation, meanwhile, is not slowing. As a result, consumers’ purchasing power is falling. Prices are now rising 3.5% year-over-year, as wage growth has slowed to just 3.2%.”

Trump Shows off Article on Lower Drug Prices That Says Biden Deserves Credit, Not Him (DonkeyHotey)

The author writes, “The White House flooded social media on Saturday with an image of Donald Trump showing off the recent Washington Post headline ‘Prescription drug prices record sharpest drop in more than 60 years,’ but failed to mention that experts cited in the article actually attributed the price drop to Joe Biden, not Trump. On its official accounts, the White House triumphantly captioned the photograph of Trump: ‘POV: you bring the receipts.’ Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, also shared it. The image was one of several taken during a staged photo-op on Friday, when Trump approached reporters with a copy of the headline he wanted them to see. Holding up a print-out of the headline, and the first five lines of the article, the president waved the page around and encouraged the press pool to record and photograph it.”

What Will It Take To End the Slaughter of Dolphins in the Faroe Islands? (Laura)

From Inside Climate News: “On May 27, a massive pod of more than 400 long-finned pilot whales was spotted off the coast of Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands—a remote archipelago located about 200 miles north of Scotland. By early evening, dozens of motorboats converged on the animals, forming a wide arc around them to block their escape as crews revved their engines and pounded on the hulls of their vessels, using the noise to drive the pod into a shallow bay. Soon the animals became trapped, thrashing in just inches of water as several hundred people on shore, who had been waiting for this moment, rushed into the bay to kill them.”

We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility (Dana)

From 404 Media: “Amazon is buying massive quantities of books, scanning them for AI training data, and destroying them in the process. A 404 Media investigation was able to reveal Amazon’s book buying operation, which hasn’t been previously reported, by placing a tracking device in a rare book we suspected would be acquired by an AI company for training data, and following it around the country to its final destination.”

Researchers Tested AI Against 100,000 Humans on Creativity (Mili)

The author writes, “A massive new study comparing more than 100,000 people with today’s most advanced AI systems delivers a surprising result: generative AI can now beat the average human on certain creativity tests. Models like GPT-4 showed strong performance on tasks designed to measure original thinking and idea generation, sometimes outperforming typical human responses. But there’s a clear ceiling. The most creative humans — especially the top 10% — still leave AI well behind, particularly on richer creative work like poetry and storytelling.”